In early 2017, the dev team at Digital Extremes decided to create something brand new for itself and its players. We wanted to challenge ourselves in a different way. But what could we possibly do after four years of iterating, writing dozens of lore-based updates, continuously evolving our in-house engine, and creating 33 entirely unique Warframes? We wanted to give our players something they have never seen before. With today’s Plains of Eidolon announcement, we’re introducing Landscapes, a simple enough concept which eschews playing through randomly generated tilesets and instead offers a living space where players can discover, explore and experience a fully open environment.

Welcome to Cetus, a makeshift town built by the Ostrons, a ragged group of survivors that make their living by scavenging and harvesting. But harvesting…what? When players, or ‘off-worlders’ to the Ostrons, enter Cetus, they’ll see a wide-open environment bustling with life. The town itself resembles a tribal open market. Players will see a connected network of colorful tents that make up a Bazaar and, within it, an assortment of questionable vendors, food merchants, opportunists, all working to eke out a living. In the background looms the ominous Bleeding Tower, a giant living biomechanical construction that Ostrons harvest… Just outside of town a belligerent cadre of Grineer are mining for resources. But what exactly?

Unlike previous Warframe missions, Plains of Eidolon is set up to explore without a timer, with multiple mission objectives, and the ability to explore in numerous ways. Cetus holds as many as 50 players at once, while the missions outside of town function like a traditional Warframe mission, grouping online squads of up to four to play together.

The demo shows our team’s attention to detail visually and acoustically. From the mixed designs on villager clothing to the piercing volumetric lighting, which changes during the newly implemented diurnal cycle, to the groups of kids running around the dirt, wearing masks of the Warframes they idolize and the Grineer they hate, we hope that Plains of Eidolon will surprise veteran players, Acoustically, our sound team has created a cacophony of sound effects that will grab players’ attention as they walk through the Bazaar, with sounds ranging from close-up conversations, to obscure tribal music seeping through the soundscape, to the clatter of tools, all layered into the background.

Upon finding a mission in the village, players can then depart Cetus and seamlessly transition into the wide-open Eidolon Plains where flocks or birds shift in space, vultures peck on indistinguishable food, and the rolling hills hide surprising forms of life. Players can follow numerous quests, but the one we’re showing in this debut demo involves some exploration, some goofing around – if one had a spear and was near a lake bustling with fish, what would one do…? And then there is the reintroduction of our previously announced Archwing — mechanical wings only used before in space or under water – which players can call in for fast travel and combat. And at night, at night, well, players will encounter the Spectral Sentient, a giant that haunts the Plain.

Things move so fast in this industry: four years in the lifespan of a game feels like a century. Since our launch on PlayStation 4, nearly four years ago (we remember launch day, November 15, 2013!) we feel we’re embarking on something new, creative, and powerful. And, hopefully, for our devoted players, something unexpected. Let us know what you think of Plains of Eidolon – the way it plays, looks, and sounds when it launches later this year on PlayStation 4. We can’t wait for you to play it!

Warframe has been around since PS4 launch so it’s totally understandable that you feel you’ve seen it all – hopefully some magic returns for you and you get to enjoy Warframe again when we release the next Update :D!

How will this work for people going through by themselves? You need an online connection to play, but you need Gold or PS Plus to play with other people. Will I be able to go to Cetus and interact with the NPCs in the village, and will I be seeing any player characters or just be by myself? I was playing through the Xbone and PS4 versions months ago till I ran out of HDD space and couldn’t update the game on either system. I prefer to play through alone with no interaction with other players. Thanks for the post the new area and potential gameplay looks interesting.

Most free to play games dont require a PS+ for online play with other people. I heard F2P games have the choice whether to restrict the online play for plus players only, but Warframe isnt one of them. Im not even sure if any exist at the moment.

Can speak from experience, since I played Warframe the first year or two of PS4 without a plus.

I was playing it through alone as well. I actually don’t want to play with others so I never attempted multi-player and never knew that about PS4 F2P; but what I’m getting at is that this post makes it sound like the new area is multi-player-centric, perhaps multi-player only. Is it a completely useless area for people playing by themselves?

LOL u got me confused with the title Plans of Edolon. I almost thought you were talking about Final Fantasy XII. And to be honest ever since you scrapped or changed the whole Voids concept the game doesn’t seem to have that flavor anymore. I’ll give this a shot. This looks exciting.

And then Digital Extremes took all my wild imaginings of what could be but never will and ACTUALLY BUILT IT. They are making out hard for me to justify playing anything else, I can’t believe they are taking the game I love into something even better.

You know with a open world environment we should have a few more beast based warframes, i have a few ideas on what kind but sadly i cant draw at all but i think the four beast based warframes ideas i would love to be seen brought to life.